Correlates of self-reported attachment (in)security in children: The role of parental romantic attachment status and rearing behaviors

We investigated the influence of self-reported parental romantic attachment status and rearing behaviors on children's self-reported attachment (in)security towards father and mother in a sample of 237 non-clinical children aged 9-12. All children and their parents completed a single-item measure of attachment style. The parents further completed an index of their authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive rearing behaviors. Results showed that the attachment status of the father was significantly related to the child's attachment style to the father. Further, children who portray themselves as insecurely attached to their fathers have fathers with lower average authoritative scores compared to children who are securely attached to their fathers. In examining the relative contribution of attachment style and rearing behaviors of the parents, insecure attachment status of the father was still significantly related to insecure attachment style of the child but the effect of authoritative rearing behaviors of the father on attachment (in)security of children was not statistically significant anymore. Altogether, these results support the notion that attachment status of the father was most substantially associated with self-reported insecure attachment of children.

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